Have White Christians Learned Anything?

In the year since the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., we’ve expected a “national conversation on race.” For white Christians, we’ve been part of that conversation. But we’ve also had some other conversations of our own, including how the Christian gospel we embrace includes both personal reconciliation and a motivation for public justice. If we neglect either, we will not be able to address the still-open wounds of racial injustice in this country.

Ferguson reminded us of the dangers of structural inequities. Many white Christians pointed out in the aftermath of Ferguson that we didn’t know the specifics of what happened in the moments before the shooting. They were certainly right. Some, however, suggested that the entire problem could be solved by African American males not resisting arrest. Some asked: “Why does everything have to be about race?”